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Neil Young Wins First-Ever Grammy Award for Archives Box

Updated | 6:52 p.m. Well, that only took, what, 50 years? After a career spanning nearly a half-century as a solo artist and a member of groups like Buffalo Springfield and Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Neil Young won his first Grammy Award in a pre-telecast ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon. The award, for best art direction on a boxed or special limited edition package, was shared among Mr. Young and his art directors Gary Burden and Jenice Heo for the boxed set “Neil Young Archives Vol. 1 (1963-1972).” Upon his win, Mr. Young (who did not receive his first Grammy nomination until 1989, for the video for “This Note’s For You”) told the crowd: “Thanks a lot, everybody.” Mr. Young was also nominated for a Grammy in the best solo rock vocal category, but lost to Bruce Springsteen.

18 Comments:

All I can say that if the Grammy's, after 50 years of Neil rockin the rock n' roll industry, can only manage to give him a grammy for the artwork on his box set, it shows that the whole thing is a ridiculous farce ... I actually agree that giving him a grammy now for the art on the box set is insulting to him as an artist and at the same time it demeans the whole Grammys institution ... I mean, how can people like Taylor Swift (no disrespect meant to her or her work) or Beyonce walk away with an armload of awards, and this kind of thing has been happening for literally years and decades, and a true authentic artist like Neil has created tens of albums and hundreds of songs of all flavors, and genre's, Jeez he's probably created a few genere's in the process and they can't come up with one measly award for his MUSIC?? Sorry, its a joke, its ridiculous, you'll rarely see me ranting like this, but its preposterous, and it proves the whole Grammys thing is bankrupt, its bogus, its fake, its pretentious, its political ... otherwise its totally unexplainable ... Neil is a class act to show up and receive the art award ... he's a gracious person who doesn't need their false, pretentious accolades, but the whole thing when you think of it is so ridiculous ya can't do much more than call it out ... ten years from now these grammy winners and their carefully manicured songs will be long forgotten and Neil and his substantive music will live on, aging gracefully as always... Neil, Long May You Run!! You truly set the real standard.

Agreed, the Grammies are a money machine, it's got less to do with music than with the promotion of product. Still, makes me smile that old Neil is up there, looking all gruffy and misplaced, on the same stage as Fabulous Beyoncé. Let's fantasize a bit, folks: maybe they could do a duet, on Field Of Opportunity or something. Can you picture that? Mick Jagger, eat your heart out!By the way, the Grammy for the bos is - of course - totally deserved.

I don't understand all this "bitchin". This price rewards 20 years of work of Neil and all his team on this important, special project. I hope that the new record and the next volumes can follow fast. For now, CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

Neil/team won the award and whether he deserved prior awards, this one is here, and it’s for the unprecedented presentation of his work as put out. I just think it can be them FINALLY recognizing the genius of a man and his muse. Why does it have to be debated as to the intent. The Beatles didn’t win it, and the Stones and Bob weren’t in the running. To diminish it I think diminishes the 20 year effort to put it together and to get it right. It’s a prize. The box set is THE prize.

Package World:Designed by R. Twerk & Co., various versions of the boxed set, priced at $100 to $300, were designed to meet two of Young’s requirements: It is durable and eco-friendly. The outer box and CD carriers inside the container are SBS board and corrugated partitions from Jenco Productions. They’re printed in six colors and four process colors, plus a spot back and spot varnish to accentuate the fine graphic details. Those include a “wrap” of newspapers of the era and artwork that embodies Young’s early years as a musician.

The graphics are printed on Monadnock Duraprint, an environmentally friendly paper from Monadnock Paper Mills.

Elsewhere inside the box are the discs, a “stash” box, and another engaging keepsake, a replica of Young’s leather personal journal. The journal and the CD wallets are made of Mohawk Via Vellum from Mohawk Fine Papers. The journal cover is a faux embossed leather. The look and feel of leather are achieved by screen printing on a synthetic material, with embossing accomplished using what Burden describes as a “radio frequency” embossing method. “

The papers were picked from the standpoint that they had the right weight, color, and especially feel,” says Gary Burden, the boxed set’s lead art director and designer. Burden and Young have been collaborating on album cover art for more than 40 years.

“From the perspective of environmental consciousness, this paper also had the qualities of not only being Forest Stewardship Council-certified as being made from pulp yielded in an environmentally responsible manner, it also was made using all wind power and its manufacturing was done without a carbon footprint” and using Post Community Waste content.

“The objective was to present a large archival collection of music, photography, and memorabilia in a new and unique way,” Burden says. “The package is a very complete collection of an artist’s life and works.”

I'm sorry but its true- Neil winning the award for the packaging? I agree it was well deserved but what about what is INSIDE? The Grammies are a buncha horse manure! Look, the boss is great, I'm a fan especially of his material up through Nebraska but the fact that Bruce is swimming in these awards and Neil has one just shows ya how out of wack awards ceremonies are! Am I alone in believing that back in what? 1993- When both Bruce and Neil were up for an Academy Award for Philadelphia- Neil shoulda won? Bruce's tune was horrible and Neil's was fantastic! Really! Proof? Christ, even I almost balled at the end of that movie when Neil's song started playing! Bruce's was a half-assed attempt at a movie song. Neil's was passionate, Heartfelt, and well written.Screw the grammy'sBruce is great but....

Neil is better!

Taylor Swift isn't worthy enough to sniff Neil's tant. The music industry is ruled by teeny-boppers cause their parents are the only one's that still buy the CDs.

Neil said it right in Shakey- music excuetives patting themselves on the back.

Oh come on, people, they deserve the award for such great art direction. The artistry is awesome. I agree that Neil deserves a Grammy for his music, and doesn't get half the overall recognition he deserves, but that shouldn't take anything away from the artists who did such a fine job creating the packaging for the Archives.

It's beautiful.

What y'all need to understand is that mainstream people in our society and the music industry aren't looking for creativity or the quality of personal expression, or your ability to channel the universe in music.

They are much more shallow than that. The people want what's sold to them, they want to be part of the popular crowd, they aren't interested in identifying personally with a song in a profound, emotional way.

They far outnumber the people who enjoy music because it moves them or titillates their minds, because of how it effects them personally, both emotionally and intellectually.

The music industry, by-and-large, plays to this tendency. It releases shallow garbage, people buy it and pretend they like it in order to satisfy their need to be accepted. This is mainstream American pop culture we're talking about here, not the land of smart, thoughtful, multidimensional individuals.

So obviously the chances of Neil Young winning a Grammy are much, much slimmer than Taylor Swift, even though he writes better music. Neil writes better music than almost anyone. It's not about good music - it's about popularity. It's about who sold the most albums because they were aggressively marketed by the industry to the shallow mainstream cult of popularity.

I'd be happy if Neil Young did get the recognition he deserved, but Neil isn't after recognition (thank GOD, because his music wouldn't be half as good as it is), and he doesn't need it, so who really cares?

In some sense it might even be a travesty to award him a Grammy, considering that winning one basically indicates that you're simplistic and derivative enough to easily market to sheep.

Wonderful post, Matthew!I love the music of the great songwriter Eric Andersen, although he has never sold much. And so for many other artists.Anyway, all these rewards are good for Neil Young, who isn't certainly a mainstream musician.